Composite heel for boots and shoes.



No. 807,825. PATENTED DEC. 19, 1905. F. W. HUNT. COMPOSITE HEEL FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

APPLICATION FILED APILS. 1905.

FRANK WV. HUNT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

COMPOSITE HEEL FOR BOOTS AND SHOES Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 19, 1905.

Application filed April 6, 1905. Serial No. 254,128.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK W. HUNT, aciti- Zen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Composite Heels for Boots and Shoes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to heels for boots and shoes, and has for its object to provide a composite heel which shall be an efficient cushion-heel and at the same time an antislipping one.

lVith these objects in view my invention consists of a composite heel made of alternate layers of rubber and fabric disposed slantingly or obliquely to the tread-surface,

as hereinafter described, and a marginal binder of rubber.

Cushion-heels having for their purpose the dissipation of the shock or jar of walking have a recognized value, and such heels of rubber have been used. In use theheels quickly wore smooth and endangered the user by extreme liability of slipping. To cure this defect, it has been proposed to embody into the heel a plug consisting of a convolutely-wound strip of rubber and fabric, the convolutions of the fabric standing perpendioularly with relation to the tread-surface. It was found in practice that such a plug must be set into or embodied in a cavity in the heel, leaving a body of rubber above the plug to serve as a cushion, otherwise the rigidity of the plug destroyed the cushion feature and was therefore undesirable. Such plugged heels with the body of highly-elastic rubber above the same are expensive of manufacture, and at best a difference of cushioning effect exists between the plugged part and the surrounding body of rubber, the relatively rigid plug creating in the user a sensation somewhat akin to that which one experiences when casually some hard substance, such as a stone, finds its way into and becomes embedded in the leather heel of a boot or shoe. It has been also proposed in such plugged heels to obviate the difficulty referred to to provide a cavity in the heel above the plug to form a highly-elastic aircushion. This necessitates niceties of manufacture which make the heel expensive.

By my invention I provide a novel, simple, economical, and thoroughly eflicient cushion and antislipping heel.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrat ing my invention, Figure 1 is a top plan view; Fig. 2, a vertical section; Fig. 3, a vertical section showing the heel under compression when sustaining the weight of the user in walking.

In the said drawings the reference-numeral 1 designates the body of the heel, and 2 the tread surface thereof. The heel body is made up, of a series of substantially parallel alternately-arranged strips of rubber 3 and strips of fabric 4, the edges of which constitute the tread-surface 2. The series of alternate strips of rubber and of fabric are arranged obliquely or slantingly with relation to the tread-surface, all of said strips slanting in the same direction, in contradistinction to a perpendicular arrangement with reference theretothat is to say, the edges of the strips of rubber and of fabric are exposed on the tread-surface and from that surface extend laterally and upwardly to the upper surface 5 of the heel in an oblique or slanting direction. This peculiar arrangement of the strips is material in substance, and it is by reason thereof that the dual efficiency of my heelviz., its efficiency as a cushion-heel and its efficiency as an antislipping one-is attained in a simple and economical mannerl If desired, the fabric may be cut on a bias, so that the warp and woof thereof may sustain a slanting or oblique relation to the tread-surface. In practice in walking when the weight of the user comes upon the heel the obliquely or slantingly disposed strips of rubber and fabric since they do not receive the weight in a perpendicular direction tend to lay down, as it were, and assume greater slant or obliquity, the heel as an entirety spreading or expanding laterally, as in the case of all-rubber cushion heels, and thus the effect, practically unimpaired, of an all-rubber cushion heel is secured, and at the same time the tendency of slipping inherent in an all-rubber heel is obviated by reason of the exposed edges of the strips of fabric, which take a frictional hold of the ground, and thus the valuable antislipping consideration is secured. When the weight of the user is removed from the heel, it resumes its normal shape and condition, as is the case with all rubber heels, by reason of the resiliency of the rubber strips combined or composited with the fabric strips in the peculiar manner described. The body of the heel thus so constituent is surrounded on its vertical surface by a margin 6, of rubber,

IIO

which when incorporated together with the slantingly or obliquely disposed strips of rubber and fabric into a complete composite heel serves also a dual officenamely, it serves as a binder and prevents separation of the rubber strips from the fabric strips, increasing length of usefulness of the heel, and,

furthermore, assists the inherent resiliency in a pile in alternate superposed relation,

and when a pile of considerable number of the layers has been built up it may be subjected to heat and pressure in any suitable apparatus to unite the same into a composite mass, after which the pile may be cut in parallel lines obliquely intersecting the pile and the alternate strips of rubber and fabric of which it is made up. The result will be a number of sheets of alternate strips of rubber and fabric standing on edge and obliquely or slantingly disposed with reference to a line drawn through the sheet from the upper to the lower surface thereof. From such sheets heel-bodies may be cut by suitable dies. Such heelbodies may then be set up in a form with and surrounded by a marginal binder of rubber, and the entire mass vulcanized together under pressure in any suitable manner known to the vulcanizers art.

the heel will preferably be provided with holes 7, extending from the tread surface partly through the body of the heel;

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A composite heel for boots and shoes comprising a body portion made up of a series of strips of rubber and a series of strips of fabric alternately arranged in substantial parallelism, standing on edge and slantingly disposed with relation to the tread-surface and inclining in the same direction, substantially as described.

2. A composite heel for boots and shoes consistingof a body portion made up of a series of strips of rubber and a series of strips of fabric, alternately arranged in substantial parallelism, standing on edge and slantingly disposed with relation to thetread surface and inclining in the same direction, and a marginal binder of rubber surrounding said body portion, and all united into one integral composite mass, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANK w. HUNT.

YVitnesses CHARLES FARROW, CHARLES W. HUNT. 

